That’s my assumption. It’s been stated in some news reports, but I know early news reports are not reliable. But it makes sense.
This is not the first completely useless wellness check I’ve heard of. There needs to be a better system, especially where children are involved. Maybe they need to start working on a warrant as soon as they can’t establish wellness. Maybe you can have a voluntary system where you can opt in to LE being able to break in for a wellness check when one is called in.
I’ve also wondered about why they sent police to the home when a car accident would be the more likely answer, but I can think of various theories. Even if they couldn’t rule it out, they may have still wanted to send someone in case it was a problem in the home, given that time is of the essence in that situation. Or someone could have driven his commute if it was known, as someone suggested. Or where I live at least, you can get pretty good information on local car accidents through a combination of Waze, Citizen, and the real-time state police highway call logs that are available online.